My Love for movies and games over the years has brought me to a point of no return[ “point of no return”, isn’t that a title of a movie, or is it?] . The point where I can only better by appreciating the very soul of the movies; Soundtracks. Research has only worsen the situation, as i came to an insatiable need for good movie, trailer, or game soundtracks.
Names like Hans Zimmer, Atticus Ross, Christopher Young, Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat, Thomas Newman just a few old guards to mention really make great movies the epic they are and portray. No lie, and you’d know where I am writing this from and when. The Emotional waves we go through when watching the movies and playing games are all thanks to this great mysterious masterpieces of soundtracks composed by these great people.
We underestimate the effectiveness and power that music in any form can have over even the most insensitive of people. In almost everything we do and see, music is involved in some form or another. Be it a piece played at a funeral or wedding reception, the tune on the radio when busy at work or even that song in the background of a television commercial. It is always there, reminding us of past experiences and emotions – thoughts too maybe – making us smile and feel the profound sense of exhilaration and sometimes even making us cry. It is this power that music has over us that movie and game scores composers take advantage of when they write the scores to accompany the motion picture and simulations.
Since primitive times, music has accompanied dances, rituals, ceremonies and plays because of its ability to characterize certain settings and enhance the audience’s mood and emotional experience. This intriguing relationship between music and emotional context has been observed for centuries, and and in modern times has been validated scientifically in the medium of film/game music. Claudia Bullerjahn’s investigations of the effects of film music using qualitative and quantitative content analysis showed that “Movie soundtrack polarizes the emotional atmosphere and influences the understanding of the plot,” thus confirming by scientific means the existence of a psychological connection between music and emotion.
Without these audio enhancements in our cinemas, stories will never be fully told. Ask them, the movie makers… I mean the even the actors, oh and those script writing muses (screenwriters), and it is clear the direction of the movie is what is primarily noticed, but the music is the inconspicuous scene setter and pervading entity of all the respective elements of their craft. The average person does not usually pay astute attention to the music that is being used in the movie, however, if it were not to be there the films and games would seem dull and empty, and come off as if something was missing. This, the Composer Aaron Copland observed as new ways that music and film interacted, listing them in his book What to Listen for in Music as: Creating a more convincing atmosphere of space and time, Underlining psychological refinements — the unspoken thoughts of a character (silent monologues), or the unseen implications of a situation, Serving as a kind of neutral background filler, Building a sense of continuity, and Underpinning the theatrical build-up of a scene, and rounding it off with a sense of finality.
To make a film or video game at its most effective, it is essential that the movie or game has a thoughtful(notāre bene) score – the background music/soundtrack specifically created to serve and enhance the story). And as the audience, it is our duty to acknowledge the soundtrack/music in order to fully appreciate all that is being displayed to us on screen. A chance for our imagination to take hold of the movie script and make of it what our benign creativity can make of an already awesome adventure.
Maybe we just don’t care. Buh try this…. what do you make of the essence of what we now recognize as an effective movie score by examining the background music of a silent film(one in which there are no speeches from characters and narrators, e.g “Original” Tom and Jerry shows with no voices, except mammy two shoes’.) As listeners we tend to not appreciate that the music scored for movies and games or played in movies and games is put there on purpose to create certain feeling, mostly nostalgic – message wise or for intercontextuality, to emphasize a point, give more life to a character or sometimes to simply add humour. We be watching moving (motion) pictures only at a 50% enjoyment rate most of the time in my opinion, if we don’t start treasuring these subtleties for soundtracks.
For the perfect audience it is a delightful duty, not necessarily to always enjoy, but to at least allow a momentary full psychological and theatrical trance with all elements of the film-making process. The scoring of the film has always been a cornerstone to the success of the film, no matter how primitive the music may be. Folks, Indie rock or the Classics and stuff… Lol. Aye, so let the music play; let your imagination soar with the wings of an eagle.
Ok! Living you now with these beautiful quotes for your indulgence with the otherworldly mental powers of us humans have. If this were ever played on a screen it’d definitely be to the tune of Lux Aeterna by Two Steps From Hell.
“The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it’s only intangibles, ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die”. CHUCK PALAHNIUK, Choke
And
“I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see”. DUANE, Michals
alekhine's gun 